MetLife revises 2017 results upward after another error discovered

March 1 (Reuters) - MetLife Inc on Thursday said it revised its 2017 earnings upward after an internal review showed that the insurer had miscalculated reserves for an annuity product in Japan.

The mistake “represents a material weakness in controls over financial reporting,” said MetLife, which increased its 2017 net income by $264 million.

The change had no impact on adjusted earnings or payments to customers, MetLife said.

MetLife’s disclosure in its 2017 annual financial filing marks another snag for the insurer, which recently had to delay its fourth-quarter earnings for two weeks because of payments it failed to make to pensioners whom it could not find.

Internal failures that resulted in MetLife not making payments to thousands of pensioners stretched back 25 years, the company said in January.

MetLife took at $70 million charge in the fourth quarter to increase its reserves to address the pension problem.

MetLife, on Thursday, said it uncovered its reserve miscalculation for the Japanese annuity product during a review it launched in late 2017 and completed early this year. But the reserves in this case, for guaranteed rates on a type of annuity, were too high.

The company found that it did not properly include customer withdrawals in its calculations, it said. (Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn Editing by James Dalgleish)